A Lesson to be Learned

Story begins here ....
THURSDAY, 14/05/2009
As usual after class ended, I went through my daily routine again in order to get back home. The crowd in the train was as usual and I didn't manage to get a seat. The train's door closed and i ended up standing just beside the door. It was sudden silent in the train and nothing looks different that day. The train passed by few stations, door opens, people enter and leave the train.
When the announcement system sounded "Stesen berikutnya, Pasar Seni", just happened that I was looking at the train's door. Crowd rushes in and i spotted a familiar face among the crowd. I thinked hardly trying to recall who is he. Second passes by, images flashing through my mind and I finally manage to remember who is he. There and then my anger and emotions rushes out! Now i realize how Empathy and Sympathy can affect out judgement.

>Now let me explain here. The "familiar guy" he is actually a man that i met before at "the" LRT station near KLCC. Few weeks ago during our sem break, I went out with my friend. That evening we ended our shopping day and were heading back. Me and my friend were talking while we were walking. Suddenly a man approached us.
He is around the age of 40, tall, thin, bald (wearing a cap), casually dressed, carrying a bag pack and was holding a map. He started the conversation in chinese and asked us for help. He told us that he is a Singaporean and came to KL to attend a motivation camp. Unfortunately, someone has stollen his wallet and his passport. Now, he got nothing left excpet few Singpr. Syiling. He told us that he need to get to KL Central to meet his brother who will be coming from Singapore over here to help him.
After hearing him saying what he had gone through, we felt pity for him and sympathy falls in. So we decided to buy him a ticket. After that we handed over the ticket and he followed us down to the LRT plattform. Now he started to complain that he is too thirsty and can we give him some money to buy a bottle of water to drink? Well at that moment I was wondering that this guy is starting to demand a lot and wanted to get more money from us. But finally we also gave him a sufficient amount of money to buy a drink. He sincerely said thanks for our help and rushes in the LRT.
That night itself, I told my parents about what had happened. Surprisingly instead of nagging at me they laughed at me badly. They told me that we were cheated and many similar cases had actually taken place there. But I tried to explain to them that guy's expression looks really real and pity. Well if we were cheated by him, we only lost our sympathy and a small amount of money, which is only $1.80 from each of us. But if he is a tourist who desperately needs help, then at least we had done our best to help him out and hoping that he had a good impression of Malaysia.

Sunday, 17/05/2009
Well, meeting him at the LRT that day really did give me a big shock. I felt like walking to him and ask him "Shouldn't you be in Singapore now? Instead of appearing here with the same outfit and pity look?!" However, I didn't do so because I was afraid that he will beat me there and then in the train == But I think that day he did recognise me thats why he don't even dare to look up and look at me while we were in the train.
Now, I am here to share my experience hoping that it teaches everyone a lesson-Not to trust anyone easily. And no matter what situation you are in, please do differentiate sympathy and empathy. Kindly remember that don't let ur emotions take control of your mind or else it will lead to wrong decision making and ended up like me @@
POOR POlY :(

cdv*p* - *pOLy* LiAn